No passport needed, travel through classroom technology

As technology progresses at the speed of light, educators are working hard to integrate the latest advancements into their classrooms and use them to engage their students. Yesterday's laptop carts have become today's classrooms full of iPads, but what will tomorrow bring? While that may be up for debate, it's clear that it will continue to encourage connections and help students push themselves. Below are three possible developments and how they can take your classroom to the next level. 

Exploring education with AR and VR

Augmented reality and virtual reality, AR and VR respectively, have taken the technology market by storm. While wildly popular for gaming, AR and VR have very practical applications in classrooms.

 AR can bring textbooks to life. See how the heart pumps blood through the body and how organs and muscles move with intricate detail. It also would be excellent for visual explanations of the large concepts of small particles. Students can observe how elements combine to create compounds rather than reading it in a textbook.

 In classrooms where VR is used in lessons, it can take students to places and times they're studying. VR can show students the Egyptian civilization, how they lived and how the pyramids were built. In higher education, VR can put medical students in the operating room or at a physical exam table to fully understand how the body works.

Inviting Alexa, Siri and Google into your classroom

"Hey Siri," "Alexa," and "OK, Google," are now part of your everyday vocabulary. It may not be long until voice assistants make their way into classrooms and start playing a more active role in academics.

 Voice assistants can provide a unique way of learning and engaging students. Students can ask questions and learn about different types of responses. They can practice speaking and listening skills.

 Imagine educators being able to incorporate voice assistants into program review and study preparation. Imagine students asking Alexa or Google to help them prepare for an upcoming test and being walked through questions or vocabulary terms they need to know.

Videoconferencing to connect classrooms and students

Videoconferencing gives students and educators the ability to connect with others all around the world. It also presents the opportunity for collaboration. Educators can coordinate a science experiment that one or both classes can conduct over videoconferencing. 

 Videoconferencing is also a great way to interact with your class's subject material. You could conference with the author of a book your students read. They can discuss his or her writing process and thoughts behind certain aspects of the text. 

 To keep up with technology and learn valuable ways to integrate it into your classroom, isn't it time to continue your own education and prepare for what tomorrow's classroom will be? Central Michigan University has a wide variety of education programs taught online and designed for working teachers. Whether you want to deepen your skills or learn new techniques, you can do it with CMU's master and doctoral programs in education technology.